“And it all starts here,” I say, and my eyes wander over my new offices—my new world.
Yeah. No pressure.
Right.
2
I’m the first one to take a seat at the conference table—it’s a week since my meeting with Dad wherein I received a massive promotion—along with the expectation of a bold, daring development pitch due in…eight days. I can’t just throw anything at Dad, however. It has to be a targeted, decisive, insightful, creative idea—if he wanted another beachside condo complex, he’d go to Brian, the current president of BRED. I’m Dad’s specific, personal pick to choose projects that will be out in left field, risky but ultimately profitable, and unique. So far, I’ve spent a week choosing my team, getting to know them, and assigning them roles. We’ve had one brief meeting where we tossed around ideas, but nothing stuck. This meeting, though—wehaveto choose an idea today, and it has to wow me.
After a minute alone in the conference room, my team assembles—Tina, my PA; Jeremy, my second-in-command; the rest of the team shares duties, attaining permits, location research, finances, in-house accounting…all the many duties and responsibilities which go into real estate development.
Once everyone is settled, I smile at the group. “So. Ideas. Our pitch is due in eight days, including the weekend.” I eye everyone. “Anyone?”
“Obviously the usual suspects are off the table?” This is Tom, a resources coordinator. “Condos, strip malls, things like that?”
I snort. “Yes, obviously. The idea has to be unique and daring, but still something we can turn a profit out of.”
Silence.
“A totally green condo?” suggests Eric, an accounting guru.
I laugh. “I am in no way ready to take that on, and that’s not daring, that’s obvious, just hard.”
“A water park?” Tom again. “But, like, themed?”
I don’t even dignify that with a response.
“What about an all-inclusive resort?” This is Tina, my new personal assistant. “Somewhere like Costa Rica or Belize. I’ve been to a couple of those with my family and I’ve always thought there could be really good money in owning one.”
Jeremy, who I’ve decided will be my second-in-command, shakes his head. “Not far enough outside the box. BRED has resort hotels in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, the Keys…if he wanted to do an all-inclusive, he’d have done it already.”
Jeremy is young, hungry, smart, good-looking, well-educated, well-dressed, straight, successful…and is always looking at me sideways as if wondering when the inevitable will happen between us. Problem for him is, I have no intention of dipping into the company roster, especially if this is going to be my core team as I move up the ranks; I’ll have to set things straight with him at some point.
For now, I focus on the topic at hand. “While the idea has merit, I have to say I agree with Jeremy. I think I would like to do an all-inclusive at some point—I think with the right location and theme, we could do it well enough to set us apart.” I leaf through the files we’ve already looked at, but there’s nothing special enough, nothing that’s going to stand out from the BRED properties already owned by my father; we’re running out of time. “What isn’t represented here that we could tap into? That’s the question we have to answer.”
There are several minutes of silence.
Tina: Asian-American, petite, fiery, fiercely intelligent, methodical and organized and focused; her black hair is cut in a sleek bob, minimal makeup, understated but sophisticated attire, with her brown eyes emphasized by a rotation of various cat’s eyeglasses in various shades, materials, and sizes.
She’s leafing through the printouts as well, and I can see her wheels spinning. I’ve deduced that when she’s got something to say, her pen goes to her mouth—and she’s chewing on the cap of her ballpoint at the moment.
“Spit it out, Tina,” I say.
She pulls the pen from her teeth and spins it around her fingers. “Rural. That’s the only thing not here. Everything is urban.”
I nod, realizing she’s right. “True, very true.”
“But that’s for a good reason,” Jeremy points out. “It’s hard to make a return on rural investments, unless you’re going to buy out huge tracts of farmland and lease them back to the farmers, but that’s just not the Bellanger style, I don’t think.”
I nod. “I agree with you, Jeremy, but…I think there’s got to be a way. If the only thing not represented in Dad’s holdings is a rural investment, then that’s where we have to go.” I tap my chin. “The question, now, becomes…what, and how do we put the Bellanger mark on it?”
Tina is staring into space, up and to the left. “I may have an idea, but it’s kind of crazy.”
“No idea is too crazy. I mean, we’re not investing on the moon—just yet.” This gets me a few laughs from the rest of the team.
“So, bear with me, because to explain my idea you need a bit of backstory.” Tina slides her yellow legal pad closer to her and starts doodling as she talks. “Last summer, my boyfriend and I took a vacation in Colorado. My cousin owns a condo in Boulder and he was visiting family in Taiwan, so we stayed in his condo while he was over there. We did a lot of hiking and exploring around the Boulder area, but one weekend we took a road trip down to Colorado Springs.”
Jeremy, ever impatient, frowns at her. “What are you angling at? There isn’t much to invest in over there. I have family in Colorado Springs, and I spend a few weeks every summer over there.”
